The night Moriki went silent, it was not because its people were asleep.<\/p>\n
It was because they were hiding.<\/p>\n
When gunmen stormed the farming town in Zurmi Local Government Area, shooting into the air and breaking down doors, families fled into the darkness clutching children and little else. By dawn, Lauwali Musa Moriki, the town\u2019s health educator, lay dead. Members of his family had been dragged away.<\/p>\n
For residents of Moriki in Zamfara State, the attack was not shocking. It was familiar.<\/p>\n
What is new – and deeply unsettling – is the public admission by Governor Dauda Lawal that much of this bloodshed, he believes, could be prevented.<\/p>\n
In an interview with Vanguard, the governor described a surveillance architecture of satellites and drones capable of tracking bandits\u2019 movements across forests and villages in real time. Every movement, he said, is relayed to security agencies \u2014 the police, military, DSS and Civil Defence.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it is not their priority,\u201d he said bluntly.
\nHis frustration echoes across a state that has become shorthand for banditry in Nigeria\u2019s northwest.<\/p>\n
A Decade of Fear<\/strong><\/p>\n For more than ten years, Zamfara has endured cycles of raids, mass abductions and reprisals. Entire villages have been razed. Farmers have been shot in their fields. Schoolchildren have been taken from dormitories in the dead of night.<\/p>\n In February 2021, 279 girls were abducted from a boarding school in Jangebe, thrusting Zamfara into global headlines. Months later, coordinated assaults in Zurmi left scores of farmers dead. Communities like Moriki have repeatedly been attacked despite warnings and distress calls.<\/p>\n Across the border in Kaduna State, similar patterns have emerged, suggesting a regional crisis that respects no administrative boundary.<\/p>\n Governor Lawal says that when he assumed office, he inherited \u201ca very, very serious and dysfunctional state.\u201d Insecurity, he insists, remains the central challenge – one that has crippled agriculture, shuttered schools, and emptied markets at dusk.<\/p>\n He says he has personally briefed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, warning that the full reality on the ground may not be reaching Abuja.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are not telling you the truth,\u201d he said of reports filtering upward.<\/p>\n The Engines of Insecurity<\/strong><\/p>\n Behind the headlines lies a complex web of forces that sustain the violence.<\/p>\n 1. The Forest Advantage<\/p>\n Vast forest belts stretching across Zamfara and into neighboring states serve as operational bases for armed groups. Difficult terrain, limited road networks and thin security presence allow bandits to strike quickly and retreat beyond immediate reach.<\/p>\n 2. A Thriving Kidnap Economy<\/p>\n Kidnapping for ransom has evolved into a lucrative criminal enterprise. Families, communities – and sometimes local governments – are pressured to pay millions of naira for the release of loved ones. In some areas, villagers reportedly pay levies to armed groups in exchange for temporary peace.<\/p>\n These informal \u201cpeace deals\u201d may reduce short-term attacks but critics warn they entrench criminal authority and weaken the state\u2019s legitimacy.<\/p>\n 3. Rural Marginalisation<\/p>\n Years of underdevelopment have left many young men unemployed and vulnerable to recruitment. Competition over farmland and grazing routes has deepened tensions between farming and pastoral communities, creating flashpoints that armed groups exploit.<\/p>\n 4. Erosion of Trust<\/p>\n Perhaps most damaging is the growing perception that distress calls go unanswered. In towns like Moriki, residents say warnings were issued before attacks – yet help did not arrive in time. Each successful raid chips away at public confidence.<\/p>\n Technology Without Response?<\/strong><\/p>\n Governor Lawal\u2019s most provocative claim is that intelligence is not the problem.<\/p>\n \u201cWith technology, every movement of any bandit, I have it,\u201d he said. The implication is stark: the state can see the threat – but fails to act decisively.<\/p>\n Security analysts say that intelligence is only as effective as the response chain behind it. Delays in authorization, poor inter-agency coordination, logistical gaps, and overstretched personnel can blunt even the most precise surveillance data.<\/p>\n The governor\u2019s comments raise uncomfortable questions: What Could Change the Tide?<\/strong><\/p>\n Experts and policy advocates point to several measures that could alter the trajectory:<\/p>\n \u25aa\ufe0eCoordinated Regional Command<\/p>\n Bandit groups operate across state lines. A unified, multi-state operational framework – with shared intelligence and rapid deployment capacity – could reduce the gaps they exploit.<\/p>\n \u25aa\ufe0eIntelligence Fusion and Rapid Response<\/p>\n Real-time data must be matched with real-time action. Dedicated response units positioned closer to high-risk rural corridors could shorten reaction time after alerts.<\/p>\n \u25aa\ufe0eRegulated Community Policing<\/p>\n Local vigilante groups have emerged in self-defense, but without proper oversight they risk escalating violence. Structured community policing, integrated into formal security architecture, could strengthen early warning systems while preserving accountability.<\/p>\n \u25aa\ufe0eEconomic Stabilisation<\/p>\n Reviving agriculture, rebuilding rural infrastructure, and investing in youth employment are long-term strategies – but necessary ones. Reducing the financial incentives of banditry requires shrinking the pool of desperate recruits.<\/p>\n \u25aa\ufe0eTargeted Kinetic Operations<\/p>\n Intelligence-driven air and ground operations against known hideouts, when carefully executed to avoid civilian harm, have shown potential in degrading armed networks.<\/p>\n A State Waiting for Peace<\/strong><\/p>\n As dusk falls again over Zurmi Local Government Area, farmers hurry home earlier than they once did. In many villages, night no longer signals rest, but vigilance.<\/p>\n In Moriki, grief lingers. Children whisper about the sound of motorcycles in the distance. Mothers scan tree lines before stepping outside.<\/p>\n Governor Lawal insists the state cannot be weaker than the criminals within it. His challenge is not merely technological – it is institutional and political. It is about urgency, coordination, and the will to act.<\/p>\n Zamfara\u2019s tragedy is not that the danger is invisible.<\/p>\n It is that, by the governor\u2019s account, it may already be seen \u2014 and still not stopped.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The night Moriki went silent, it was not because its people were asleep. It was because they were hiding. When gunmen stormed the farming town in Zurmi Local Government Area, shooting into the air and breaking down doors, families fled into the darkness clutching children and little else. By dawn, Lauwali Musa Moriki, the town\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":97776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5807,5777],"tags":[141,5146,8019,8020,497],"class_list":["post-97774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-crime-and-violence","category-features","tag-insecurity","tag-lawal","tag-moriki","tag-security-agencies","tag-zamfara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=97774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/97776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nIf bandits can be tracked in real time, why do communities still burn?
\nIf their camps are mapped, why do attacks persist?<\/p>\n